I keep telling my friends that canning doesn’t really take that much time. Well, sometimes, it totally does. It takes all day and you end up sticky and with a sink full of dishes. BUT you can avoid that very easily by being smart about the recipes you make and how you make them. I made a canner full of applesauce yesterday, but I also managed to sleep in, do laundry, bake bread, finish . . . → Read More: How to Make Applesauce and Spend the Day Biking

Our Dark Days meal for the week was something that we have already posted, so we decided to post a strategy instead. Eating locally sometimes means having limited options and learning how to deal with what you can get. In our case, we can’t find (or afford when we find it!) user-friendly, pre-wrapped packages of local chicken breasts. So, we buy a whole chicken and do some work ourselves.

Get ready for some MacGyver moves. If you ever find yourself without a cherry pitter and have 9 pounds of cherries to prepare for canning, just grab a paper clip and open it up to make a “hook” on each end. The first few cherries will be a little awkward, but after that you’ll get the motion down and fly through the pile. I was really surprised at how well it worked! It was also . . . → Read More: How to Pit a Cherry with a Paper Clip (Video)

If you’ve been wanting to learn to can or just want to meet some new friends, come join Erik and me in our Manhattan kitchen for National Can-it-Forward Day on Saturday, August 13th. We’ll start around 2 pm and finish up whenever we’re done canning and chatting away (6:00 or so).

To cover materials, we’re asking for $30 a person. If that’s prohibitive for you, send me an email and we’ll work something . . . → Read More: National Can-It-Forward Day

Keeping these rules in mind will help you create safe, tasty canned goods.

Wash your hands, wash your tools, wash your food! Your preserves won’t get cleaner in the jar. Wash everything that will touch the preserves right before you start – spoons, pots, funnels, jars/lids/screwbands, etc. Even if I think everything’s clean, it gives me peace of mind to do it again.